internet for all

Since its birth in the labs of ARPANET half a century back, Internet has risen to create a truly global communication system connecting people across the world. The last two decades has seen users rising from forty million to around 3 billion, with one billion added in the last four-five years itself. This exponential growth is fueled primarily by three factors: a robust and resilient global network, growth of cheaper and powerful computing driven by the Kurzweil curve and an ecosystem of relevant services created by new companies powered by network effects.

The Elephant in the Room

Over 4 billion people still remain unconnected to the Internet. Users today are predominantly urban since vast majority of investments by telecom industry went into solving the problem of capacity and complexity while not investing enough on last mile access. Case in point, the United States. Over 10 million have no access and 17% of its population (incl. over half of rural Americans) lack quality broadband access. The problem is not merely economic (lower rural revenue, higher capex) as often argued, but also because of technological limitations. In a developing country such as India, this problem is compounded by lack of reliable support infrastructure (like grid power).

US Mobile Broadband Map. Source: 2015 Broadband Progress Report, US FCC

To solve the last mile connectivity problem, we must design a network with the end user in mind. Smartphones today provide the lowest point of entry ($30–35 Android) to the Internet and over a billion of them are being produced annually. To bring the next four billion people on to the Internet in the next few years, wireless (3G/LTE/WiFi) should act as the primary access network.